Congress Dalit leaders meet at Parameshwara’s residence, discuss internal quota

Ministers and MLAs belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SC) community of the Congress held a meeting at the residence of Home Minister G. Parameshwara in the city on Saturday, amid a demand for implementing the internal quota among SC groups.

Besides Dr. Parameshwara, three Ministers — Shivaraj Tangadagi, K.H. Muniyappa, R.B. Thimmapur — and 20 MLAs attended the meeting and reportedly discussed issues related to internal quota and intra-party unity among leaders.

Minister Priyank Kharge did not attend the meeting since he was in Delhi with regard to the IT/BT programme, sources said.

In January, Dr. Parameshwara planned to hold a dinner meeting of Dalit leaders, which sparked off a controversy and was eventually called off after intervention from the party high command.

Sources said the meeting of SC Congress leaders was convened to resolve inner differences before the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission submits its report on internal quota to the government.

A couple of days ago, Dr. Parameshwara told reporters: “We will get to know everyone’s opinions on the internal quota issue.”

The commission, which had monitored the two-month survey, is expected to come out with a formula to divide the 17% reservation for SCs amongst the different sub-groups based on their population and backwardness.

The Dalit left has fought for internal reservation on the grounds that they have been historically deprived of reservation benefits.